Letter: Coalition has its work cut out to sell AV

One historical parallel of interest is the 1975 referendum on whether the United Kingdom should stay in what was then the European Economic Community.

The cabinet of the then Labour government led by Harold Wilson was seriously divided on the matter; the potential for serious divisions that might actually bring down the administration, which then had a majority of two, was enormous.

Wilson decided to suspend collective cabinet responsibility for the duration of the campaign. But he also laid down strict guidelines to deter personal attacks and to prevent ministers criticising the general thrust of government policy.

Broadly, it worked. The regime survived, the referendum result was accepted.

The challenge for Prime Minister David Cameron over the next two months or so is to introduce a similar level of civility. The challenge for Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg is twofold: first to persuade voters that AV is a better system in ensuring the legitimacy of the way MPs are elected; second, to get across the message that it will do something meaningful to clean up politics, to deter MPs from abusing their power.

If he does this properly he can make out that the Liberal Democrats are genuine agents of change. But the reality of coalition politics demands something more from him. He needs to expose those opponents of the measure who care nothing of electoral reform but simply want to kick his party. He needs also to win in a manner that will respect the dignity of the Prime Minister and the Conservative Cabinet colleagues who put the opposite case.

BOB TAYLOR

Shiel Court

Glenrothes, Fife

So, THE honeymoon is over. The young, happy couple who stood together in the Downing Street rose garden and pledged that their union would bring us stability and an eventual return to prosperity may, according to the political pundits, be on the rocky road to separation, if not divorce.

We, the would-be muscular multicultural big society, might be forgiven for thinking this marital split was because of major differences of opinion on savage welfare cuts, students' tuition fees, a VAT increase, or perhaps maybe about U-turns on withdrawal of school funding or the privatisation of England's woodlands. But no; it was about something described by Nick Clegg himself as "a miserable little compromise" - the Alternative Vote.

He may well be right in his description. A recent Scotsman poll demonstrated that members of the public could not identify Iain Gray, the Scottish Labour Party leader. How then, are they going to choose on a ballot paper, and put in preferential order, people they have never heard of, let alone recognise?

JOHN R MURDOCH

Aldour Gardens

Pitlochry